The list for this month is much shorter than usual.
As I have noticed before when I'm writing I read less.
I've been thinking about what I learned at BWWA 2010 and exploring websites related to Victorian literature. I've been reading technical stuff on archives, libraries, and website design. I've been exploring HASTAC - Humanities, Arts, Science Technology Advanced Collaboratory which I had not been aware of until I was interviewed (link on the sidebar) but this subject is fascinating to me. link: Bridget Draxler's current blog on the future of thinking.
I've been catching up on periodicals and catalogs. Shopping on-line for clothes; they've quit making my trousers! I hate to shop so it's a good thing that my view on fashion is: "Fashion is for those who have no sense of personal style."
Probably spending too much time on Facebook but I'm enjoying reconnecting with my cousins, classmates, and kids I know & loved from my Sunday School classes.
Fiction:
Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn: Mary Barton. 1848. Kindle. Project Gutenberg. This book is essentially a love story with characters about whom it is easy to care. That empathy is the snare to engage the reader in a discussion of capitalism and the conflict between mill owners and workers, in an investigation of power, money, and faith.
Bedside book:
Brueggemann, Walter: The Prophetic Imagination. 2nd edition. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001. Brueggemann is never boring but his texts are incredilbly rich; I expect to linger over this reading. The first edition (1978) is the "first publication in which" Brueggemann says he "more or less found my own voice as a teacher in the church." I am an admirer of Brueggemann and my mature views of scripture have been significantly shaped by his writings. In this early book I recognize the roots of some of the later works--particularly Message of the Psalms. Awed to Heaven, Rooted to Earth, the prayers of Walter Brueggman lives on my bedside shelf so that he prays for me when I cannot pray for myself. In February 2005, Bobbie and I attended his lecture: Psalms: the good, the hard, the surprising. Some quotes from my notes: "The Psalms invite us to push the edges of our emotional alertness to the reality around us." "...faith requires candid entry into suffering..." "good authoritative speech... generates a new world... why our speech must be imaginative and not cliched." "Breath is a gift; it is not a possession. Breath is the property of the life-giving God." "There is nothing in your life that you cannot bring to the presence (orientation) to the absence (disorientation) of God." "Biblical faith traffics not in certitude but in relationship." "Church... too much an echo of the culture... need to recover our idenitity... as ...the place where the truth is told and things are called by their right names..." " God responds to authentic trouble..." the purpose of worship is "to re-preform creation... people come to church overwhelmed by chaos... liturgy transforms chaos into creation." "...the promise of new orientation is not a quiet deal between me and Jesus. It is a BIG cosmic event in which I may participate."
link: some of Brueggemann's texts available on-line
06 May 2010
22 April 2010
Earth Day Theology
Growing up on a farm, I learned, early and often, that "the land" is the source of life. "It's the land, Katie Scarlett" as a succinct statement of family values could have served my own father as well as it did Gerald O'Hara in Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind, 1936.
I remember the sweet, rich, ancient, earthy odor that filled the air when Daddy broke our last bit of native sod. I remember that he did so only in response to governmental regulations that he feared would prevent him from ever being able to cultivate that land if he didn't plant it that year.
Family legend preserves the words he spoke to Mother when their first irrigation well pumped water from the Ogallala Aquifer, "Well, it's done. If we're lucky, the water will last long enough to get the kids through college with maybe enough left to buy you a brick house in town." Unlike, most we never expected that "the water will never run out." We never wasted water, not on the farm, not in our home. Yes, the water paid for three kids to graduate from the colleges of their choice: Rice University, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech. Finally, when the "water ran out" to the well that supplied the house, Daddy & Mother bought a brick home in Floydada.
Our family philosophy, stated more by our actions than our words, was: conserve, preserve, replenish, pick up the trash. We were Conservationists. Library of Congress exhibit for today includes a link to the history of the American Conservation Movement
I remember the sweet, rich, ancient, earthy odor that filled the air when Daddy broke our last bit of native sod. I remember that he did so only in response to governmental regulations that he feared would prevent him from ever being able to cultivate that land if he didn't plant it that year.
Family legend preserves the words he spoke to Mother when their first irrigation well pumped water from the Ogallala Aquifer, "Well, it's done. If we're lucky, the water will last long enough to get the kids through college with maybe enough left to buy you a brick house in town." Unlike, most we never expected that "the water will never run out." We never wasted water, not on the farm, not in our home. Yes, the water paid for three kids to graduate from the colleges of their choice: Rice University, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech. Finally, when the "water ran out" to the well that supplied the house, Daddy & Mother bought a brick home in Floydada.
Our family philosophy, stated more by our actions than our words, was: conserve, preserve, replenish, pick up the trash. We were Conservationists. Library of Congress exhibit for today includes a link to the history of the American Conservation Movement
I remember the first Earth Day in 1970. That was the date I added "environmentalist" to "conservationist" as part of my self-definition. The next year, I took the only "free elective" of my undergraduate career. When one changes majors multiple times and with only 3 semesters left switches from Science & Engineering to English Literature and still graduates in 4 years, there just isn't freedom in course selection. The course I chose was Environmental Stuides, which could be taken as a science, as a social science, as economics, as political science, as history, or as a humanity. On the course reading list was Silent Spring 
by Rachel Carson: "Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world."
by Rachel Carson: "Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world." 
DMP's second masters degree is in Environmental Science & Engineering. In our home, we have always recycled; we have always made decisions that reduced energy useage; we have always been careful of pesticides, herbicides, and plant selection. We have a reasonable, rational, scientific understanding of the earth as an interwoven web of life which is sufficient reason for our ecological views.
However, these views are also informed by our faith. DMP and I have always understood our relationship to the earth as an issue of Christian stewardship. As Christians, we believe that "in the beginning, God created..." and God said, "let the earth bring forth..." and it was "very good." In the second chapter of Genesis, God's command to humankind was "to take care of" the earth.
The Hebrew text is always richer--that simple phrase "to take care of" is וּלְשָׁמְרָהּ. shamar meaning "to hedge about... to guard, to protect, to attend to" [which reminds me of The Law] and "to beware, to be circumspect, to take heed to oneself" [which says that personal behavior matters] and "to keep, to mark, to look narrowly, to observe, to preserve, to regard, to reserve, to save" [which means paying attention and taking action]-- and all those shadings in meaning color that command, defining the relationship of humankind to the earth.
Anyone who is a "creationist" is called by the Creator to be a conservationist, an environmentalist, earth's caregiver. [Noting the shared root of two English words: "conservationist" and "conservative" should make environmental issues a core value of Conservative politics. Oh, that it were so!]
Quite literally, we all stand on this common ground and we must work together to וּלְשָׁמְרָהּ. the earth.
Earth Day. Today and every day.
Earth Day. Today and every day.
23 March 2010
What I'm reading...
I've been spending a lot of time working on my Victorian author project. Newly unearthed:
I've done a major review of the medical literature re. myasthenia gravis for a private client.
I'm reading a lot of Britsh Women Authors preparing for the BWWA conference at TAMU in April:
Ward, Mary Augusta (Mrs. Humphry): The Mating of Lydia. 1913. Kindle. Project Gutenberg. Is friendship without romantic love possible between men and women? A look at the New Woman who turns out to be the old Victorian ideal of woman as "redeemer" of man. Like Robert Elsmere this book has a strong villan, an older man attempting to destroy the faith/self of a younger/better man.
Corelli, Marie: A Romance of Two Worlds. 1886 Kindle. Project Gutenberg. The author's first novel deals with art and music and parallel universes. She attributes much (too much) to ELECTRICITY, particularly to "human electricity" This book reminds me of John Fowles The Magus and Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights and magical realism, best represented by Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
I download books free of charge, directly to my Kindle (.mobi format for Kindle 1) from http://manybooks.net/ which offers thousands of books preformatted in many formats for computer, smartphone, electronic books, ipod etc. etc.
Non-fiction:
Foster, Thomas C.: How to Read Novels Like a Professor. A jaunty exploration of the world's favorite litereary form. New York: Harper, 2008. I'm still nibbling this book. In addition to being helpful to students preparing to attend or taking college literature classes, I think it would be helpful to writers.
- a new work of short fiction in an Anglican parish publication and credited to Evelyn Whitaker. I've long suspected that she first published in religious press. I also have hints of a couple of other similar publications to chase.
- a listing of her name in a church history: Christ Church, Saint Pancras, London
- which strongly suggests an association with Cristina and Maria Rossetti which accounts for the presence of painters in a number of Whitaker's writings and perhaps for the Pre-
Raphaelite illustration on the cover of the 1886 Walter Smith edition of Tip Cat bookbinding exhibit of library University North Texas - the repository of records for Roberts Brothers (Boston) who were the authorized publishers of Evelyn Whitaker's works in the USA. Catalog information notes re. endorsed royalty checks indicate a variant spelling "Whittaker" which may facilitate biographical research. A trip to Boston is in my future.
- so I'll have a lot of updating of my website: http://evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/index.html
I've done a major review of the medical literature re. myasthenia gravis for a private client.
I'm reading a lot of Britsh Women Authors preparing for the BWWA conference at TAMU in April:
- Mary Augusta Ward 1851-1920 a prolific and best selling writer of novels with religious themes and Victorian ideals. She was one of the founders of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League. For more information: Wikipedia Mary Augusta Arnold (Mrs. Humphry Ward)
Ward, Mary Augusta (Mrs. Humphry): The Mating of Lydia. 1913. Kindle. Project Gutenberg. Is friendship without romantic love possible between men and women? A look at the New Woman who turns out to be the old Victorian ideal of woman as "redeemer" of man. Like Robert Elsmere this book has a strong villan, an older man attempting to destroy the faith/self of a younger/better man.
- Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, 1810-1865, biographer of Charolotte Bronte and author of the delightful Cranford which was popularized in the 2007 BBC production, has been one of my favorite authors for some time now. Her religious views are Unitarian in the best sense as one who seeks common ground and unity among people of good will. Victorian Web: Elizabeth Gaskell Wikipedia Elizabeth Gaskell beautiful portraits of her
- Marie Corelli, 1855 -1924, the People's Choice of her time, the best-selling author in both Britian and America, although not greatly admired or appreciated by academic readers. Her writing style is over-the-top, laden with sensationalism and emotionalism. She presents an odd mix of religion/Christianity with theories of parallel universes, astral projection, and reincarnation. I find Corelli's scientific knowledge shallow and pretentious. Any writer who was so widely read and wildly popular must be considered interesting, but I did not much enjoy nor do I recommend Corelli. VictorianWeb Marie Corelli mariecorelli.org/
Corelli, Marie: A Romance of Two Worlds. 1886 Kindle. Project Gutenberg. The author's first novel deals with art and music and parallel universes. She attributes much (too much) to ELECTRICITY, particularly to "human electricity" This book reminds me of John Fowles The Magus and Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights and magical realism, best represented by Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
I download books free of charge, directly to my Kindle (.mobi format for Kindle 1) from http://manybooks.net/ which offers thousands of books preformatted in many formats for computer, smartphone, electronic books, ipod etc. etc.
Non-fiction:
Foster, Thomas C.: How to Read Novels Like a Professor. A jaunty exploration of the world's favorite litereary form. New York: Harper, 2008. I'm still nibbling this book. In addition to being helpful to students preparing to attend or taking college literature classes, I think it would be helpful to writers.
05 March 2010
March Memoir...
When March comes in whether lion or lamb, I remember Mrs. Hewitt, my first & second grade teacher. Her birthday was March 8th and for decades I never failed to send her a card (at Christmas, too) until her sister wrote me a few years ago that she was no longer able to see the cards or know that she was remembered.
Here is a photo of the class with Mrs. Hewitt.
I am the second grader on the top row left wearing the corduroy dress with white PeterPan collar.
Here is the first grade photo with Mrs. Hewitt absent;
substituting was Ruby Lee Higginbotham who later worked as the school janitor and our bus driver. Tommy is the boy with glasses on the top row (he scooched down so he wouldn't be "too tall")
and I'm standing in front of him.
Some years ago I wrote a memoir about her for a tribute to teachers sponsored by Borders Books. Sibyl Hewitt--I remember her hands at www.gather.com
That memoir dealt with her classroom and a special needs student, Tommy. But there is a sense in which every student has special needs.
I was in all her reading groups and when I read with the top group, "my" group, she never corrected my pronunciation. In the other groups we worked on my speech disorder--both a stutter and the inability to sound "s" when it came before a hard consonant. By the end of first grade, my speech was near normal. When we read aloud, she discouraged "calling words" and taught us "deportment" and "projection" and "inflection." That memoir dealt with her classroom and a special needs student, Tommy. But there is a sense in which every student has special needs.
Teaching two grades at the same time while attending to the needs of gifted and special needs and non-english speaking students required much creativity in creating a willingness in all her students. She bribed us. While Tommy had his time at the sandbox to keep him happy, other students had special work sheets and opportunities to color and do paper art. I did art only when it was required. My reward was my desk next to a bookshelf filled with books which I could explore when I finished my work.
She often used older or gifted students to help with the younger or those with needs. While a second grader, I sacrificed "my reading time" to sit at a desk with a tiny first grader who spoke no English. I had a bowl of candies (little multi-colored gummy things the size of minature marshmallows) which I dispensed to the little girl as we completed each page in her primer. When she went to her reading group she could read aloud like everyone else. Throughout the day other students engaged her one-on-one with jacks or crayons or girls-only sandbox. By the end of the first six weeks, she had learned a lot of English and made a lot of friends.
Long before there were "educators" and "mandates" and "in-service" ad inf. there were teachers.
Mrs. Hewitt was one of the best and in her class room there was no child left behind.
This illustration is from one of my favorite books: The Faith of America illustrated by Norman Rockwell. Text by Fred Bauer. New York: Artabras, 1980. An excellent way to explore American history is through periodical art. The following link has this photo in better color: see more Norman Rockwall illustrations
She often used older or gifted students to help with the younger or those with needs. While a second grader, I sacrificed "my reading time" to sit at a desk with a tiny first grader who spoke no English. I had a bowl of candies (little multi-colored gummy things the size of minature marshmallows) which I dispensed to the little girl as we completed each page in her primer. When she went to her reading group she could read aloud like everyone else. Throughout the day other students engaged her one-on-one with jacks or crayons or girls-only sandbox. By the end of the first six weeks, she had learned a lot of English and made a lot of friends.
Long before there were "educators" and "mandates" and "in-service" ad inf. there were teachers.
Mrs. Hewitt was one of the best and in her class room there was no child left behind.
This Norman Rockwell illustration for the Saturday Evening Post (1946) evokes Mrs. Hewitt's classroom with some differences: our stove was black and in the corner, our windows looked out onto a playground and the flat Panhandle plains, and we all wore shoes.
16 February 2010
What I'm reading...
It's mid-February so what I'm reading is IRS pubs as I prepare to do our taxes. Ugh! I hate this. And I miss Donald Booker whom we could really trust to do it for us. Now we TurboTax. When I was growing up Mother always served salmon croquettes (she made hers with Post Toasties) with canned tomatoes and store-bought (vs. the homemade we took for granted) cookies when she worked on taxes.
It's an election year so what I'm reading is information in the hope of making an informed choice in the primary elections. Early voting begins today so I'm hoping to have my endorsements before the weekend so we can VOTE! One source of good information is the League of Women Voters with links to the party sites. I agree with the Chronicle's endorsements of Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Bill White for gubernatorial candidates.
We're also having a colder than usual winter so instead of working in my yard I'm browsing seed catalogs and websites. Houston isn't Pennsylvania, California, or Virginia--it isn't even Dallas--so don't expect general garden books to work. I get my gardening advice Kathy Huber's garden site at The Houston Chronicle but there are a couple of books I also recommend:
River Oaks Garden Club: A Garden Book for Houston and the Gulf Coast which is unfortunately out-of-print although used copies are available and so much the better since this book is going to be more at home in your garden than on a shelf. Its circle of the year and monthly lists of what to plant and what is in bloom are much needed.
Cathey, H. Marc & Bellamy, Linda: Heat-Zone Gardening. How to choose plants that thrive in your region's warmest weather is most useful because it's a colder than usual February but July & August will be HOT!.
I was invited to read and comment on two works by friends:
McGrgor, Keith: The Beacon. I was privileged to have a pre-production read of Keith's newest play. Visit his webiste: ravenwriters.com
Becker, Joseph Peter is completing his Ph.D. thesis. He has done some really fascinating work on grace. His thesis deals with a short section of Corinthians but it has implications for all scripture and for the life of believers. I told Joe that "this changes everything." One of the things it has changed is my view of Pauline scripture. As my theology has grown increasingly "feminist" I have found Paul to be a "thorn in my side." No more. I cannot wait until Joe's work becomes more generally available. I have not read a book that more changed my understanding since Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy.
Non-fiction:
Eugene Peterson's Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. A conversation in spiritual theology is still on my Kindle and I am finishing up and rebrowsing this book which I highly recommend.
Foster, Thomas C.: How to Read Novels Like a Professor. A jaunty exploration of the world's favorite litereary form. New York: Harper, 2008. David finished and passed this one on to me which is proving almost but not quite as delightful and informative as this author's previous book How to Read Literature... I highly recommend this book to students who are preparing to attend college.
Austen, Jane: Emma. Kindle. The recent PBS programs remind me that it's time to re-read Miss Austen.
Bedside Books:
Mabie, Hamilton Wright: Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know. Doubleday, 1905. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. I'm reading one or two a week. I forget how frightening some of these stories are. I'm pretty sure that I would not choose to read them to a young child. Let's rate them PG.
Paulson, Beth: Wild Raspberries. 2008 I'm prolonging the pleasure from this delightful poet. Previous books are The Company of Trees and The Truth about Thunder.
Merrill, Nan C.: Psalms for Praying: an invitation to wholeness. New York/London: Continuum, 2006. This reworking of the Psalms emphasizes "God is love..." It is by no means an accurate translation but it is a response to the timeless text and gives a fresh voice to psalmic prayer. I am only allowing myself a psalm or two at a time hoping to make the book last through Easter.
SEASONS:
Whitaker, Evelyn: Laddie. We finished our discussion of the 19th Century woman novelist as theologian. My introduction and downloadable .pdf of Laddie with my annotations are available at my domain: evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/
It's an election year so what I'm reading is information in the hope of making an informed choice in the primary elections. Early voting begins today so I'm hoping to have my endorsements before the weekend so we can VOTE! One source of good information is the League of Women Voters with links to the party sites. I agree with the Chronicle's endorsements of Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Bill White for gubernatorial candidates.
We're also having a colder than usual winter so instead of working in my yard I'm browsing seed catalogs and websites. Houston isn't Pennsylvania, California, or Virginia--it isn't even Dallas--so don't expect general garden books to work. I get my gardening advice Kathy Huber's garden site at The Houston Chronicle but there are a couple of books I also recommend:
River Oaks Garden Club: A Garden Book for Houston and the Gulf Coast which is unfortunately out-of-print although used copies are available and so much the better since this book is going to be more at home in your garden than on a shelf. Its circle of the year and monthly lists of what to plant and what is in bloom are much needed.
Cathey, H. Marc & Bellamy, Linda: Heat-Zone Gardening. How to choose plants that thrive in your region's warmest weather is most useful because it's a colder than usual February but July & August will be HOT!.
I was invited to read and comment on two works by friends:
McGrgor, Keith: The Beacon. I was privileged to have a pre-production read of Keith's newest play. Visit his webiste: ravenwriters.com
Becker, Joseph Peter is completing his Ph.D. thesis. He has done some really fascinating work on grace. His thesis deals with a short section of Corinthians but it has implications for all scripture and for the life of believers. I told Joe that "this changes everything." One of the things it has changed is my view of Pauline scripture. As my theology has grown increasingly "feminist" I have found Paul to be a "thorn in my side." No more. I cannot wait until Joe's work becomes more generally available. I have not read a book that more changed my understanding since Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy.
Non-fiction:
Eugene Peterson's Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. A conversation in spiritual theology is still on my Kindle and I am finishing up and rebrowsing this book which I highly recommend.
Foster, Thomas C.: How to Read Novels Like a Professor. A jaunty exploration of the world's favorite litereary form. New York: Harper, 2008. David finished and passed this one on to me which is proving almost but not quite as delightful and informative as this author's previous book How to Read Literature... I highly recommend this book to students who are preparing to attend college.
Austen, Jane: Emma. Kindle. The recent PBS programs remind me that it's time to re-read Miss Austen.
Bedside Books:
Mabie, Hamilton Wright: Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know. Doubleday, 1905. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. I'm reading one or two a week. I forget how frightening some of these stories are. I'm pretty sure that I would not choose to read them to a young child. Let's rate them PG.
Paulson, Beth: Wild Raspberries. 2008 I'm prolonging the pleasure from this delightful poet. Previous books are The Company of Trees and The Truth about Thunder.
Merrill, Nan C.: Psalms for Praying: an invitation to wholeness. New York/London: Continuum, 2006. This reworking of the Psalms emphasizes "God is love..." It is by no means an accurate translation but it is a response to the timeless text and gives a fresh voice to psalmic prayer. I am only allowing myself a psalm or two at a time hoping to make the book last through Easter.
SEASONS:
Whitaker, Evelyn: Laddie. We finished our discussion of the 19th Century woman novelist as theologian. My introduction and downloadable .pdf of Laddie with my annotations are available at my domain: evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/
03 February 2010
Lightnin' Strike
1972-1973. Astrodome. Cheap seats, just left of center field. During mid-week Astros games, five bucks got us into the game and bought Cokes and hotdogs for supper, maybe popcorn or candy if there was a promotion like "ladies' night" or two-for-one dogs. Some nights we took home change. We lived in Smith Square and walked to the game--didn't even have to pay parking.
The size of the crowd in that section varied from every seat filled to a dozen or so regulars. Sometimes there were Little League teams, fresh faced kids from the suburbs of Sharpstown and Westbury. Some nights brought the player and band parents from Yates or Worthing High Schools. Men just back from working the off-shore rigs and contruction workers crowded in on nights when beer was cheap. On those nights it could get a bit rough but by and large it was a congenial crowd--we all loved the game.
When we were lucky and the section wasn't too crowded, a black man (Negro had just passed from polite use, and Afro-American had yet to be introduced) in a slouch hat and somewhat garish jacket sat with a guitar. The guitar was a thing of beauty.
Before the game and during lulls in the action, he played 12-bar blues with licks and progressions, and frequently a sustained bass. Sometimes he sang or kinda hummed. It was unlike any music I had ever heard and I loved it.
Sometimes he seemed to be just fooling around, free and loose. Sometimes I thought he was composing a new song. Come the 7th inning, he always had a mini-concert which I thought would have been well worth a cover charge that was more than double what the grad student with the working wife had budgeted for the evening. Baseball and blues. It just doesn't get any better.
One night, flush with both gratitude and a little cash, DMP offered to buy him a hotdog and Coke and he said, "Make it a beer." My tee-totaling, church of Christer paused for a beat (during which the man did some pretty fancy drumming on the guitar case) and then said, "You got it."
When we asked his name, he said, "My mamma named me Sam; most folks calls me Lightnin." Although we didn't know it at the time we had met Houston blues legend, Lightnin' Hopkins.
We spent the next few years with the U.S. Army in Maryland and when we came back to Houston rarely attended Astros games except with friends. We seldom sat in the cheap seats, having grown prosperous and less rich.
I did continue to see Sam out and about, now and then. At Herman Park Zoo a couple of times. Very often at DMP's slow-pitch softball games for church or work teams when they played week night games at parks in the UH or TSU neighborhoods. He'd be sitting at the top of the bleachers if there were any--on a picnic bench or railing or car bumper otherwise--with his guitar. The man either loved a ball game or just liked to be playing a crowd. I ran into him at a bus stop now and then.
The last couple of times I saw him was early in the 1980s. He looked unwell. He was playing the blues in hospital lobbies at the Texas Medical Center. There is no unacknowledged pain in the blues; nonetheless there is something joyous and hopeful in that music.
Listen to Lightnin' Hopkins on youtube.com
I chose this rendition of Cotton because I like the photos and because the songs I remember best were those that evoked my childhood growing up on the farm. It was common ground. "I never felt more like singin' the blues."
Yesterday's Houston Chronicle had an article about a proposed marker in honor of Lightnin' Hopkins on Dowling Street near the popular club which charged a cover to hear my friend play. Sam was quite famous and not the poor old man I thought him to be, one of my "angels unaware."
The size of the crowd in that section varied from every seat filled to a dozen or so regulars. Sometimes there were Little League teams, fresh faced kids from the suburbs of Sharpstown and Westbury. Some nights brought the player and band parents from Yates or Worthing High Schools. Men just back from working the off-shore rigs and contruction workers crowded in on nights when beer was cheap. On those nights it could get a bit rough but by and large it was a congenial crowd--we all loved the game.
When we were lucky and the section wasn't too crowded, a black man (Negro had just passed from polite use, and Afro-American had yet to be introduced) in a slouch hat and somewhat garish jacket sat with a guitar. The guitar was a thing of beauty.
Before the game and during lulls in the action, he played 12-bar blues with licks and progressions, and frequently a sustained bass. Sometimes he sang or kinda hummed. It was unlike any music I had ever heard and I loved it.
Sometimes he seemed to be just fooling around, free and loose. Sometimes I thought he was composing a new song. Come the 7th inning, he always had a mini-concert which I thought would have been well worth a cover charge that was more than double what the grad student with the working wife had budgeted for the evening. Baseball and blues. It just doesn't get any better.
One night, flush with both gratitude and a little cash, DMP offered to buy him a hotdog and Coke and he said, "Make it a beer." My tee-totaling, church of Christer paused for a beat (during which the man did some pretty fancy drumming on the guitar case) and then said, "You got it."
When we asked his name, he said, "My mamma named me Sam; most folks calls me Lightnin." Although we didn't know it at the time we had met Houston blues legend, Lightnin' Hopkins.
We spent the next few years with the U.S. Army in Maryland and when we came back to Houston rarely attended Astros games except with friends. We seldom sat in the cheap seats, having grown prosperous and less rich.
I did continue to see Sam out and about, now and then. At Herman Park Zoo a couple of times. Very often at DMP's slow-pitch softball games for church or work teams when they played week night games at parks in the UH or TSU neighborhoods. He'd be sitting at the top of the bleachers if there were any--on a picnic bench or railing or car bumper otherwise--with his guitar. The man either loved a ball game or just liked to be playing a crowd. I ran into him at a bus stop now and then.
The last couple of times I saw him was early in the 1980s. He looked unwell. He was playing the blues in hospital lobbies at the Texas Medical Center. There is no unacknowledged pain in the blues; nonetheless there is something joyous and hopeful in that music.
Listen to Lightnin' Hopkins on youtube.com
I chose this rendition of Cotton because I like the photos and because the songs I remember best were those that evoked my childhood growing up on the farm. It was common ground. "I never felt more like singin' the blues."
Yesterday's Houston Chronicle had an article about a proposed marker in honor of Lightnin' Hopkins on Dowling Street near the popular club which charged a cover to hear my friend play. Sam was quite famous and not the poor old man I thought him to be, one of my "angels unaware."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)